#crossed keys

[esoterica333]

A little cheeky christian magick for this full moon (this conjuration from crossed keys always makes me chuckle a bit when I flip past this).

[ebaeschnbliah]

VATICAN  CAMEOS

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‘Vatican Cameos’ is a well known phrase in Sherlock BBC. It’ s Sherlock’s secret code word to warn against some imminent life-threatening danger. The code is used three times in total: 

First by Sherlock in ASIB when he is about to open Irene’s safe where she keeps her camera phone, guarded by ‘explosives’.

Second by Sherlock in TSOT when he is about to connect the last dots regarding the Mayfly Man case, the invisible man with the invisible knife, and what this means for Major Sholto.

Third by John in TFP when he learns that Eurus is able to ‘reprogramme’ people. Sherlock doesn’t pay attention to him though. He has just played Irene’s theme on his violin and is about to touch the wall of glass which seperates him from Eurus.

The word ‘cameo’ has different meanings. It can be a piece of jewellery, like a gem or small medallion, often with a profiled head carved in stone or some other hard material. The word is also used for small literary or filmic pieces or small theatrical roles. It looks like both meanings - ‘carved in stone’ as well as ‘small guest appearance’ - could apply to the wording ‘Vatican Cameos’ in Sherlock BBC, in a metaphorical reading of the story.

TBC below the cut …

Two restaurants lit by fire and flame

At Angelo’s  ...

In the unaired PILOT/ASIP, Sherlock and John wait at Angelo’s restaurant for serial killer Hope. It’s the first time both men work together on a case. From the fireless mantlepiece right next to their candlelit table, a silent watcher observes the beginning of their relationship. It’s the bust of a pope (x x).

ANGELO: Anything on the menu, whatever you want, free. All on the house, you and your date. …  Anything on the menu, I cook it for you myself.

A pope, head of the Vatican and supreme keeper of an unrelenting belief, is present at the first ‘date’ of two men, is forced to watch silently, how they fall in love with each other … while a living, breathing ‘angel’ isn’t only ready to serve them food and drink … no, the ‘angel’ even offers to cook the meal himself for free … everything they desire. 

The ‘angel’, literally, lights the fire between Sherlock and John with the remark, that this would be much more romantic for a first date. The whole scene seems to be drenched in a yellow light.

Maybe also worth noticing ... the bust of the pope has been put on the same place at the mantlepiece as the skull in 221b. 

At the Cross Keys Inn ...

Sherlock and John have rooms at the Cross Keys Inn near Baskerville. They meet in front of the blazing fireplace after Sherlock’s first encounter with the monstrous hound in Dewer’s Hollow. A heart adorns the mantlepiece right over the flickering flames.

The owners of the Cross Keys Inn are Billy and Gary, a gay couple. They have a dog which they couldn’t bring themselves to put down. A sign with ‘vacancies’ written on it, is placed above the statue of a hound. In the pigeonholes beneath, some lovely old fashioned keys seem only to wait for their task to open doors into equally lovely rooms. Bottles of wine are placed at both sides of the keys, the hound and the sign. 

The name of the restaurant - Cross Keys - is a deliberate choice by the creators of this story (X) and it seems they really knew quite well what they were doing by choosing precisely this name. The image of two crossed keys features most prominently in the coat of arms of the Vatican, crowned by the papal tiara. This turns the Cross Keys Inn into another short ‘cameo appearance’ of the Vatican. The ‘crossed keys’ - the keys of heaven - have been given to a gay couple that provides food and drink and rooms for those, who want to fulfill those desires. 

It isn’t new that these two characters are mirrors for Sherlock and John. (Follow the dog, Part 1 by @sagestreet​ ) Their names speak for themselves as well:

Billy is short for William, like William Sherlock Scott Holmes

Gary contains the germanic element ‘ger’ meaning ‘spear’

The ‘crossed keys’ of the Vatican

The flag of the Vatican, the papal colours, are yellow and white. They mirror the colours of the keys. The silver key symbolizes the pope's earthly power and the gold one represents god's divine power. The mechanisms of the keys (the bit/beard that unlocks) is turned up towards heaven, their grips are facing downward to show that they were given into the hands of the pope by god. 

In heraldry ...

gold (Or) is mostly depicted as yellow and linked to the sun and faith, representd by the topaz (aspects linked to John and his mirrors)

silver (Argent) is mostly depicted as white and linked to the moon and purity, represented by the pearl (aspects linked to Sherlock and his mirrors)

The Vatican’s crossed keys represent the metaphorical keys of the office of Saint Peter, also known as the ‘keys of heaven’. They are the symbol of papal authority. Peter recived the keys and alongside with them, the power of binding and loosing was also commited to him.  (Sources: X X )

“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,”  (Matthew 16:19:)

“What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder” 

This phrase is very well known from wedding ceremonies. Marriage, also called ‘the holy matrimony’, is one of the seven sacraments in catholic church. It is a convenant by which two people establish between themselves a partnership of the whole life. And to this day, the Vatican decides which type of partnership is legal and blessed and which one is a sin and damned. A view, carved in stone and unchangeble, it seems.

Faith, Hope and Love

Those three aspects, closely related to deep emotions, are also known as the three theological virtues. In christianity they are associated with the ‘salvation resulting from the grace of god’ (x).

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.  

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13)

The three virtues - hope, faith and love - are also an important part of the rosary prayer. The first three Hail Mary’s at the beginning of the litany are dedicated to them by ending each one of the verses with … ‘and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, …

... who increases faith in us.’

... who strengthens hope in us.’

... who ignites love in us.’

The creators of Sherlock BBC took a rather special and original way to include those three virtues and Mary’s pregnancy into their story. 

HOPE - is the name of the serial killer in ASIP, who offers two sorts of pills (chemistry), a good one and a bad one. One of his victims is the pink lady who had once been in ‘good hope’. But then her daughter Rachel was stillborn. Rachel is the code word to track down Hope. 

FAITH - is the name of the serial killer’s daughter in TLD (who’s also linked to chemistry). She appears in two different versions, both presented as mirrors for John. It turns out that in one of the two versions she is Eurus in disguise ... the ‘other one’ ... Sherlock’s long locked- up emotinal part. 

LOVE - is used in its Latin translation ‘AMO’ (I love) as code name for the person who is Mycroft’s - the brains - superior. This code word is also used by a second person, Vivian Norbury, to influence the Tiblisi hostage incident - the ultimate cause for the ‘death’ of Rosamunnd Mary and the eventual ‘birth’ of Mary Morstan, which will leads to the birth of baby Rosamund Mary.

Three different stories and yet, each one is about ‘TWO’ (even ‘I love’ appears as AMO & AMMO) and the concepts of choice, death and rebirth. All of it linked to the love story of two men.

The yellow thread

The colour yellow runs through the story told in Sherlock BBC, from the first series to the (by now) last: 

This thread starts with Sherlock’s and John’s first ‘date’ at Angelo’s. The whole scene is drenched in yellow. 

A secret code of ancient cyphers, sprayed in yellow paint, leads to the Yellow Dragon Circus. 

Golden cats and big ‘yellow’ felines - lions - roam the story. 

Yellow is the colour of the smiley face on the wall of the 221b living room. 

There’s an assassin who carries a yellow ladder and a yellow tool case with a gun in it. 

A bright yellow mask has been placed inside a box, alongside with a train, a phone, nicotin patches and a note. 

The main colour of the wedding ... so much yellow. It’s the wedding that leads Sherlock to a revolutionary revelation and to a love deduction. 

A canary trainer, a trainer of yellow birds, turns out to be the killer. 

The Norbury case from canon, known as the case of the ‘yellow face’, plays a vital role in an episode. 

The finish of a race is marked with a bright yellow band that floats slowly to the ground while a serial killer passes as winner. 

Yellow is the colour of the sun, of fire and flames. 

Yellowbeard ….

Yellow and white, gold and silver - are the colours of the Vatican. Colours that represent unchangeable tradition, stubborn persistance and inflexibility. Sherlock BBC links those colours stongly to John and Sherlock. The conductor of light, the fierce lion on the one hand and and the man in the moon, the virgin in the white sheet on the other hand.

A pope, carved in stone, is forced to witness how two men fall in love. The crossed keys of heaven are given into the hands of a loving gay couple. The christian virtues of hope, faith and love become a core element in that story of change and rebirth. What might the colour yellow stand for in Sherlock BBC? 

What if it becomes the colour of victory for a much too long forbidden love? 

Speculative addition:  nuns versus Dracula

In case Dracula BBC is somehow related to Sherlock BBC, which role might have been given to the nuns? As catholic nuns, will they turn out to be  another ‘vatican cameo’? After all, nuns do have great significance in Sherlock BBC since the beginning. There are the ‘headless nuns’ from PILOT and TSOT and furthermore, sister is just another word for nun. I’ve tried to follow the trail of those nuns/sisers in ‘The Roads we walk have demons beneath’.

Inspired by the comments on this post some time ago and the last bit by the new trailer for Dracula BBC.  I leave you to your own deductions. 

For more ‘vatican cameos’ try   A CHRISTMAS TALE

December, 2019

[rebjukebox2015]

Crossed Keys - Times of Grace

[archangels-to-faeries]

[snooplionofjudah]

daily routine out of the enchiridion and effects i have noticed

so the enchiridion of pope leo is chock full primarily of orisons to be used towards magical effects, i got a copy of the crossed keys a while back and had eventually decided to develope a daily routine of prayer before any operation prayer of the day of the week gospel according to st john and the rest of the other psalms(?) listed before the week prayers 1: the very FIRST thing i noticed for myself was that after more than a month of using it my psychic abilities which i had been strengthening before through yogic practices were held the FUCK back. everything sort of...i dunno, paranormal for lack of a better word was. but i noticed psychic powers were taken down by alot, as was the ability to leave my body in spirit. it scared me so bad that i actually didnt pick up the book again for a while after it until i affirmed i was gonna do it and see whatever happens which, terrifyingly happened again. ive been off this for a while but i would notice it led to extreme thirst for anything again, to experience anything magical and especially anything divine in a way id never been like before. 2: divine protection definitely went up, for me and people around me too i think. i kept getting into bizarre situations (falling backwards on cement stairs i was doing steps on, for example) and i would just..avoid getting hurt or at the least getting hurt badly, which for me is abnormal since i am the definition of two left feet most of the time. but id get into these weird situations where something was supposed to hurt me, or i was about to get into an awful accident and i would be saved from it. thats not to say i didnt EVER get minorly hurt but alot of the time it was like things had been avoiding me. on the other hand, i feel like i had been put into these situations at the same time looking back on it now. i think back to that one quote about angels and saving you. 3: if there are nasty spirits around, this sort of seems to just piss them off, everyday i was doing it at my abuelitas home things would literally be thrown at me. one of them being a large portable fan, that always spooked me to fuck and back but the thing would again, never hit me. it would get thrown hard at me but it always landed just a little too short of actually hitting me. or strangely fucking off to the side of me. 4: people liked me ALOT better, they would keep telling me things that were almost like worship. it was like anything i did or said was perceived as being spectacular to them. ive always been ok enough to get by with people but this was something else. 5: i had dreams that were completely bizarre, infact i have chronic night terrors almost every time i go to bed but when i was doing my routine i not only remembered more of my dreams they all got WAY more pleasant, and alot more mystical for lack of a better word? i wasnt having dreams about god or angels but i was having dreams about things that WOULD happen in the most cryptic fashion possible. those are the most notable things i can remember off the top of my head, i kinda feel like the practice engenders spiritual dryness (thirst for it?) but i dont want to say im 100% sure even still

[the-swamprat]

Preparing new tools today 💪🏻

[rumpusgoat]

A note for those working with the Crossed Keys. The Ave Maria in Latin above and is a derivative I have not seen - it repeats itself. I've only ever seen in this way: AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. I'm curious if this is a variant, something from the time, or even a mistranslation. Let me know what you think. @thedesertgod

[esoterica333]

Evocatory seals from Micheal Cechetelli’s “Crossed Keys” in the subsection “Black Dragon”, which is the first standard and high quality English translation of the French grimoire, “Véritable Dragon Noir: Les Forces Infernales Soumises Á L’Homne”, who’s original writer is unknown.